Balancing Work and Study: 8 Tips for Undergraduate Students

Effective time management can be challenging for undergraduate students working part or full-time. Finding a way to manage work and study may cause stress, making you feel extremely overwhelmed.

This is a common problem, and there are numerous strategies you can implement to manage your time better so you can dedicate time to your work, studies, and personal life without feeling tired all the time. 

This article discusses working students’ main challenges and offers eight top tips for managing work and studies more effectively. 

What is work-life balance?

Work-life balance refers to maintaining a healthy balance between work, study, and personal life. 

It involves time tracking and planning to ensure you increase efficiency and get as much work done as fast as possible to have more free time to spend with your family. 

The goal of attaining a healthy work-life balance is to help you feel less overwhelmed and have more fulfilling experiences in all aspects of your life. 

A good work-life balance will help reduce stress, improve job satisfaction, and prevent burnout. 

What are some common challenges students face when balancing work and study?

Because of several factors, balancing studies and work can be challenging for most students. Here are some of the main challenges you may be facing. 

• Time management: You may struggle to juggle your classes, work shifts, and time with your family and friends. This is likely because you’re not managing your time effectively. 

• Financial pressure: You may need to support yourself financially and struggle to balance work hours and study commitments while meeting your financial obligations. 

• Fatigue and burnout: Working long hours while attending classes can lead to extreme stress, tiredness, and burnout. Studies show South Africans are some of the world’s hardest workers. 

• Conflict of priorities: You may find it hard to prioritise your tasks because you often see work commitments (which provide finances) as more important than academics. This makes it hard to distribute your time equally. 

• Social isolation: Working long hours and studying significantly decreases one’s time with peers and loved ones, making you feel isolated. 

• Struggle to maintain good health: Finding time to exercise or spend time on yourself can be hard. This makes it hard to stay in shape and maintain a healthy mental state. 

• Transportation and commuting: Between work and undergraduate studies, you may spend a lot of time commuting, which adds to your workload and increases stress. 

8 tips to effectively balance studying and working

Student life can be tricky. Finding a healthy balance between work, studies, and personal life takes time and work. It is not something that is going to happen naturally. You can implement the following tips to help you achieve a better balance. 

1. Create a schedule

You can create a comprehensive schedule that outlines your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and responsibilities. This way, you can keep track of everything that needs to be done and space out the tasks accordingly. 

This includes looking at your classes, work shifts, time for study, and activities. To make it easier for you to track, you can use a planning app or calendar, such as Google Calendar or Notion. 

When you plan your tasks, consider productivity hacks that allow you to schedule your most important tasks during peak performance hours. 

2. Set clear goals

Define specific goals for your academic, work, and personal pursuits. Whether earning your degree or finishing particular tasks at work, knowing your goals will increase motivation. 

You can break these goals into even smaller goals and tasks to make them more manageable. This way, you can easily measure your progress and stay on track. 

3. Communicate with your employer and professors

Maintain open communication with your manager and professors regarding your availability and commitments. 

Always provide advanced notice if there are scheduling conflicts. For example, if the times for your exams and important work deadlines clash, talk to your supervisor about possible adjustments. 

4. Prioritise tasks

Prioritisation is crucial for time and stress management. Different techniques, such as the Eisenhower Matrix, can be used, which lists tasks as urgent versus important. 

This will help you identify the tasks you need to focus on immediately versus those that can wait a few days. 

5. Use your breaks wisely

You must take advantage of your breaks between classes and work shifts to help you re-energise and increase productivity. 

You can use your short breaks to complete quick tasks such as checking your emails and reviewing your study notes. 

On the other hand, longer breaks can be used for relaxation and leisure activities such as reading your favourite books or going for a walk. 

6. Consider online study options

Studying online does not require as much time as traditional methods, and you will not have the added burden of commuting to and from school. 

It also gives you the flexibility to study when you have time instead of having to work your schedule around in-person lectures. If you are considering postgraduate studies, REGENT offers several online postgraduate programmes. 

7. Practice time management techniques

Experiment with different time management techniques such as time blocking, allocating specific time slots for certain tasks, or the Pomodoro Technique, where you work in short bursts with breaks in between.

Always set realistic deadlines for your tasks to avoid setting an impossible goal and missing deadlines. 

8. Avoid procrastination

Try to avoid leaving tasks until the last second. Doing so will put you under unnecessary stress and even cause panic and burnout. 

If you are an avid procrastinator, you can identify common triggers and patterns of procrastination. For example, you may have a fear of failure, a lack of motivation, or you may be a perfectionist. All these factors can make you procrastinate.

Instead, try to break these patterns and practice self-discipline by setting aside dedicated time for each task and finishing it no matter what. 

Study an online course with REGENT

It is essential to manage your time effectively to avoid stress, fatigue, and burnout during your studies. One way you can do this is to study online. It does not require as much of your time while offering you the desired qualifications and expertise.

If you want to pursue further studies without all the added stress, look at REGENT’s online postgraduate programmes.